Monat: September 2016

Affiliate Network – Do I Need One?

The affiliate has an option. They can either deal with several merchants, or they can deal with an affiliate network. So why should a marketer wish to deal with an Affiliate Network?

I remember a pal told me a story awhile back. He had actually built a little website and had actually signed up to become an affiliate at a stack of different affiliate programs connected to the topic of that website. A few weeks after he had actually established the site including links and banners from multiple affiliate programs, he turned his attention to other company interests and disliked the website.

A few months later, he discovered that a couple of checks had started arriving from the affiliate programs he had associated. Not large checks, however quantities for a couple of dollars occasionally. That was his very first issue– as he was living outside of the USA, great deals of percentages result in lots of bank charges. (Which makes me ask – Why cannot all nations enable affiliates to bank checks at NO CHARGE?).

Nevertheless, the checks continued to can be found in, and although some of them were posted on his wall as they were so little he couldn't bank them, he wasn't complaining as he was making money he had not expected. It turned out that his website had actually ranked high up on specific keywords in a significant internet search engine, and he was getting a fair amount of targeted traffic totally free. A few months after that he decided to log into all the affiliate accounts he had registered with, and noticed that some of them had actually not paid him as the quantities were too small, a few of them had not paid although they should have, and some even revealed that they had sent him amounts that he didn't remember getting checks or EFT or paypal or other payments for!

How does working with an affiliate network avoid this from taking place, and is this the only factor to work with an affiliate network?

A great affiliate network has a variety of different offers which the affiliates can promote, and almost all the affiliate networks consolidate the amounts the affiliates make from the different projects. This means that the affiliates get a CONSOLIDATED payment rather than numerous smaller ones.

It also makes fixing up the payments simpler, as you merely log into one affiliate network, and can see a summary of each of the projects you have promoted, how much you have actually made from them, a summary of just how much you have earned in general, and just how much the affiliate network has paid you to this day.

Once you work with one project in an affiliate network, the other projects work in a similar if not similar way– the tracking is the same technique, the place you pull the creatives from is the very same, the method you examine your statistics is the exact same– and almost always, all of this can be achieved by logging into one backend site rather than many different sites.

Now you are working with one log-in, where you can truly get to understand the system.

Nevertheless, even with the best of affiliate networks, traits go wrong– however with an affiliate network, you would be allocated an affiliate manager, who will help you sort out any issues you come across. Not 50 various affiliate supervisors– one for each campaign you are running, as would hold true if each merchant was a standalone merchant with their own affiliate program– however one affiliate manager for all the campaigns. And by developing a connection with your affiliate supervisor, when you do need answers, you have someone to rely on.

Of course, when you end up being a professional very whaling affiliate (the type that lies on the beach while the money pours in– HAS ANYONE REALLY ACHIEVED THIS?, you'll need particular campaigns to promote, and that is why, even the best of affiliates belong to numerous affiliate programs and affiliate networks.

So my recommendations when beginning is to select one or 2 affiliate networks, end up being acquainted with their system, build up a connection with the affiliate manager, test out the separate campaigns they have, and let them help you achieve the success and results you want to accomplish.

They can either work with several merchants, or they can work with an affiliate network. He had actually built a small website and had actually signed up to end up being an affiliate at a stack of different affiliate programs related to the subject of that site. Even with the best of affiliate networks, traits go incorrect– however with an affiliate network, you would be designated an affiliate manager, who will help you arrange out any problems you encounter. Not 50 different affiliate managers– one for each project you are running, as would be the case if each merchant was a standalone merchant with their own affiliate program– but one affiliate supervisor for all the campaigns., you'll need particular campaigns to promote, and that is why, even the best of affiliates belong to numerous affiliate programs and affiliate networks.

Markethive is the Rise of the Entrepreneur

If you ever wondered what drives Markethive? This video explains it all. We did this for you. This is why it is basically free. This is why it was built, for all of the entrepreneurs who strugle and have a dream.

For starters, let’s quickly explain what Alexa rank is and why it’s important.

What is Alexa Rank?

Alexa rank is a global estimation of your website’s daily traffic. Alexa determines its ranking with a downloadable toolbar that tracks visits to your website. It’s a rough estimate of your website’s popularity online. Alexa rank is calculated using a combination of daily average visitors and pageviews over a 3 month span.

Currently, Google is the top rated Alexa website so it’s a pretty good indicator of website traffic.

Why is Alexa ranking important?

Here’s a couple reasons why you should pay attention to your Alexa rankings:

Increases social proof for your website.

Attracts advertisers and encourages them to spend more money buying ad slots on your website

Lists you higher up in directories and lists that rate websites based on Alexa rank

Increases your backlinks because lots of bloggers create top 100 lists based on Alexa rating

Helps you notice traffic spikes when your content goes viral

Sometimes, a high Alexa rank will open A LOT of doors for you and soon you will have people begging you to post their content, advertise their products/services or help you make more money through joint ventures.

7 Steps to Increase Your Alexa Rank

Ok, great! You probably are wondering how to improve your Alexa ratings quickly and easily. There’s lots of widgets, traffic exchanges, viral techniques and tips to increase Alexa rank but some are better than others. I’m going to show you exactly step by step how to boost your Alexa rank quickly.

Step 1: Install the Alexa Toolbar on your Web Browser

The Alexa toolbar tracks visitors and pageviews for every ranked website. Download the toolbar and Alexa will start tracking every website you visit.

Your Alexa rank will increase because you must visit your website often to write new content, make changes and respond to comments. This is the quickest way to boost Alexa rank for free.

Step 2: Add the Alexa Widget to Your Website

Not every visitor to your site will have the toolbar installed, but you can overcome this by adding the Alexa widget to your website.

Simply grab the code here or install the Alexa Rank Plugin if you use WordPress.

Step 3: Update Your Website Regularly

You need lots of repeat traffic to improve Alexa rankings so update your website on a regular basis. Weekly is the bare minimum while daily or even multiple times a day is best.

Everytime you make a new webpage, it’s like a new pathway to your website. The more pathways you have, the more changes someone will find your content useful and helpful.

Regular updates also increase search engine traffic, too. SEO is a great way to increase Alexa rank as well as overall visitors to your site.

Step 4: Buy Alexa Traffic

Check out this Fiverr gig for increasing Alexa rank. $5 is enough will boost your Alexa rankings fast enough to get you under the 1 million mark. If you want to improve Alexa rank even more, try a premium service like YourAlexaRank.

Step 5: Join AlexaBoostup

Next, you want a passive way to get real traffic to boost your Alexa rating over time. Sign up with Alexa Boostup and you can drive over 2,000 Alexa hits to any website for just $2.

There’s also a free traffic exchange option that requires you to keep a window open on your computer. If you don’t have the funds, then opt for the free option. I prefer fast results so just spend the $2.

Facebook is the #1 social media referring website so you need to focus your efforts on driving lots of Facebook Traffic. If your content goes viral, you can get thousands of visitors for literally no cost. Add a social media plugin to your website or add the Facebook share button manually if you don’t use WordPress. You will see a big increase in Alexa rank and overall traffic once you get your Facebook page setup and start sharing your content on the world’s largest social network.

Step 7: Focus Your Efforts on Viral Content

After you implement these 6 steps, you will see a HUGE Alexa rank improvement in just a few days. But to go from top 100,000 to top 1,000, you need to focus your time on creating viral content or outsourcing content creation to a skilled writer or video editor.

Viral content is emotional, engaging content that you can’t help but talk about and share with your friends. Videos, infographics, stories, images and How to articles are great examples of viral content.

About The AuthorTarik is an SEO expert & internet marketer who operates several websites in various online niches. Ask about his SEO Services or contact Tarik.

Modern schools in developed countries look not the same they used to 50 years ago. The first most significant difference is much less paper. Instead of looking for information in bulky encyclopedias and catalogues, teachers and children use electronic databases and Wikipedia. But it is only the beginning. Leading Google experts tried to imagine how it would look like in 50 years.

Total Cooperation

Jonathan Rochelle, a director of Google department Apps for Education, supposes that by 2066, due to the spread of virtual technologies and additional reality, the cooperation between pupils will increase. Nowadays, if pupils need to work at one shared project they have to meet in one place, commonly in school, but in the future they will not have to do it as technologies will provide more opportunities for remote work.

In 2006 Rochelle was one of the developers of Google Docs package. Since then he has been working at many similar products, in particular at Google Classroom cloud platform that allows to improve and simplify the work of a teacher. Rochelle supposes that in the future schools will use such services on permanent basis, because even today we can see how the Internet is changing all spheres of our life. “We shouldn’t ignore the importance of social interaction and cooperation”, says Rochelle.

In the future children will be assessed and directed with the help of intellectual algorithms. It stands without saying, that we will not have fixed classes of children of the same age. Since the beginning of educational courses, the groups will be formed for each separate subject or aspect considering the abilities of pupils.

Such a system will allow to use the whole educational process more efficiently. Moreover, it will help to develop the abilities and skills that are predominant for each child that will result in early and successful career orientation.

Educational programs will also be formed individually, accordingly with pupils desires. Of course, there will be some general curriculum compulsory for all children. But then the technology, taking into consideration capacities and desires of each person, will decide what course will be optimal for the person. This will create the conditions to educate professionals and experts in some specific fields.

Robots and Teachers
The School Of The Future

The artificial intelligence has been improved a lot for 50 years and now devices can teach sometimes even better then live teachers. Even today in some Japanese banks human like robots are working as cashiers and porters near the door. By 2066 such robots can work as teachers. However, may be we will see such robots even earlier.We are likely to experience such changes really soon.

However, nobody can replace live teachers and the feedback they can provide. Besides, they will have to help engineers and scientist to introduce this school reform. Experts will not be able to cope with such a difficult task without the help of teachers knowing many peculiarities of work with children.

"No One":
For those of you who don't know, my youngest son, Christopher, is on the autistic spectrum. I went to his back to school night on Thursday and took a picture of one of his projects displayed on the wall, one of many cute little cards that all the kids in his class had filled out. It asked him to list his favorite foods, sport, TV shows etc.
I took the picture hurriedly, and didn't notice all the answers he had filled out at that time. It was only after I got home that something stood out upon closer review.
Do you guys remember, a couple of weeks ago, the massive amount of press that the Florida State Football player got when he sat down at the lunch table with an autistic boy that was eating alone? That player didn't know the boy was on the autistic spectrum when he sat down with him…he just saw a boy eating lunch all by himself and decided to join him. A teacher snapped a picture of the moment and it went viral. That's what made the story great….it wasn't staged…it was just a real moment of human kindness.
The follow up to that story was that the boy no longer ate alone; that the other kids NOW were sitting with him and patting him on the back. That boy now had "friends",B and everything was right with the world.
Something that wasn't right was fixed, and tied up neatly with a pretty little bow of kindness and understanding.
But in my head, I asked "Where were those kids prior to this child being thrust into the spotlight? We know where they were: they're in the picture: sitting at other tables, ignoring him.
If that football player had not sat down next to that child, and if it hadn't become a national news story, that kid would still be sitting by himself today.
And it's not their fault…. that's the saddest part. They were clearly not taught to embrace and accept the differences of others. Not by their teachers, which would have been nice, had they thought to do so, but by their parents. I don't mean to imply that parents that don't have this conversation with their kids are bad people, but only that somewhere in between working, soccer practice, and homework, it never occurred to them to have this particular conversation. I'm sure that if Christopher were typical (that's the word we use instead of "normal" in our world of 'Holland', for our developmentally delayed children), I would have not had this conversation with him either.
Christopher's brothers have had many, many sleepovers over the years, obviously in front of him, and it has not gone unnoticed.
"Can I have sleepover?" Christopher has asked.
"Sure, buddy….with whom?" As a response, he would flap his arms and stim instead of answeting. He didn't have an answer because he didn't have a name.
Because he didn't have a friend.
He's never had a friend.
Ever.
He just turned eleven.
And because he's had no friends….there was no one to invite.
And I don't have a solution. I don't have an answer. The reality is that I have to rely on the compassion of others to be incredibly understanding in order just to sit next to him, attempt to engage him, and make him feel included.
My son is very smart and has a great sense of humor. Every adult that meets him is drawn to him. However, because he needs the input, he will spontaneously flap his arms and make loud, guttural sounds from time to time. It draws a lot of attention in public. If you're not used to it, it's normal to feel embarrassed, as you will have all the eyes in the room upon you. He will ask the same question fifty times in a short period of time (His latest is "What time do you go to bed?" and "What's your addtess?").
I typically have to tell servers in restaurants just to give him the restaurant's address…as once he has a satisfactory answer, he will usually move on.
Like I said, there's no easy answer for this…at the end of the day it comes down to compassion, empathy and understanding.
But mostly empathy. Not from you guys, but from your children. As far as I know, (save for one time), Christopher's classmates have never been overtly cruel to him. What they have done, however, is to exclude him. And frankly, I understand this. His classmates are delayed as well, but most not as much as Christopher. They are figuring out how to interact socially every day, and because Christopher cannot engage them in a typical way, he gets left behind…excluded.
Until Thursday, I didn't know how aware he was of this divide, as he does not often talk about his peers. I should not have been surprised as he makes his wants (but not his emotional needs) very clear….but I was. Mostly, I suppose, because I had never seen him put in down on paper. For the first time, it was staring at me in the face.
I guess I'm sharing this because when asked to list his friends he wrote "no one". Never have five letters cut so deep, and they weren't even directed at me….it was just an overly simplistic statement that spoke volumes.
And because I know him so well, and because I have pretty good handle on him after raising him for eleven years, I know this disconnect makes him feel lonely, and it makes him sad.
Usually, I have to figure out what Christopher is trying to say, as his manner of speaking is very straightforward; very black and white.
This time I did not.
It's clear to me that he desperately wants to be part of the group, but his challenges make it difficult for his peers to include him.
The only solution I can come up with is to share this with you and ask that you have a conversation with your kids. Please tell them that children with special needs understand far more than we give them credit for. They notice when others exclude them. They notice when they are teased behind their back (a lot of times "behind their back" is right in front of them because they think the 'different' child doesn't understand). But mostly they are very much in tune when they are treated differently from everyone else.
Trust me when I tell you this hurts them. Even if it's not obvious to you and me.
For the first time ever, I'm going to ask for two favor, here, on Facebook.
One: Share this post on your time line. Awareness and empathy are the only solutions I can come up with.
Two: Speak with your children. Show them the video of the Florida State Football player. The Internet is full of feel-good stories about a special needs child being included. Remember the special needs child that was put in the basketball game for the last few minutes of the final game of the season? Very recently, there was the prom king who gave his crown to a special needs classmate.
These stories are newsworthy because they are unusual. We are not used to hearing about kids being kind to those that are different and unique.
I not so naive that I think this post is going to change the world. But, if, by sharing this, I can make you think about having a conversation with your children about empathy, about going out of their way to include those that are different from everybody else, especially if it goes against the group mentality, especially if it's not socially poplar (I'm not so old that I don't remember that this takes bravery…bravery to break from the confines of whet your friends think is cool in the middle and high school worlds), then I will feel like Christopher's voice has been heard.
Because even though he can't say it, he wants to be included.
He wants a voice, that, at the moment, he doesn't have.
And he needs help to find his voice.
And the child that will finally reach out to him, that will help him, that will include him, will be the kindest child, the child that does the right thing by going above and beyond.
He will be Charlie Bucket.
And that child will be Christopher's first true friend.
Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
Christopher's Dad
UPDATE:
As I have just leaned that this has gone viral, All of the requests I have been receiving to write Christopher a letter or send a care package now make sense. This was an idea that was started by KMBZ radio personalities Dana and Scott, or one of their listeners to be precise, so this "card shower" is on its way.
Many of you have asked to send cards and packages to Christopher, so, please join the party…I will be posting his reactions online. You may write to him at: Christopher Cornelius….96 Valley View Drive…Rockaway NJ )7866. Thank you for your grace and kindness….it is very much appreciated! Bob Cornelius

10 Reasons why you need a Multilingual Website

The internet continues to grow and has become the default point of call for businesses and individuals searching for goods, services or information.

For businesses wishing to get that competitive advantage, a multilingual website now presents one of the most high impact means of expanding a client base and securing greater sales volumes.

The multilingual website will continue to become a necessity for businesses and organizations as the process of internationalization unfolds.

1 Shift Away from English Internet Users

The internet began as an English speaker's invention and as a result was dominated by English speaking users and sites. However, times are changing. With the growing numbers of people buying PC's and internet access available from Nigeria to New Zealand, English speakers will soon be in the minority when it comes to internet use.

Results of research carried out by Nielsen-Netratings in March 2005 described foreign internet markets as "low hanging fruit," i.e. if you have the will and foresight there are massive revenues to be found for relatively little effort. The results showed that internet use in the traditional strong holds of the USA, Germany, the UK and Sweden is flat lining. On the other hand countries such as France, Hong Kong, Italy and Japan are seeing substantial growth in internet usage.

As Kaizad Gotla, senior analyst at Nielsen-Netratings states, "The easiest opportunities are in countries where internet usage patterns and user/site relationships are less established. Acquiring users in markets that are currently in their growth stages will lead to a loyal user base that will pay dividends for internet companies in the future."

2 Cost Effective Marketing Tool

Having the ability to communicate to a whole new international audience in their own language will undoubtedly yield results not only in a financial sense but also in terms of marketing and creating awareness of your brand, service or product.

A multilingual website in the grand scheme of things is probably one of the most cost effective ways of marketing your company, capturing new users, building relationships with new clients and giving your brand an international outlook.

3 New Customers

Ultimately what a multilingual website brings you are new customers. By having your site accessible to potentially thousands of people you are showcasing your company across the globe. For non-English speaking users looking for your product or service, you automatically capture their attention.

4 Sales

With every language added to a website there is the potential for an increase of between 100% in sales. Even if a multilingual website is translated into a few of the major world languages, i.e. Spanish, French, German and Italian there is potentially a 400% increase in sales. There are few other ways to get such an increase for such little investment.

5 Customer-Centric

A multilingual website demonstrates you are thinking about the customer. That little extra effort shows you have thought and cared enough about them to offer the website in their language. As with anything in business, if the customer thinks you care, they will want to do business with you.

6 Trust

For many cultures there is an issue of trust when it comes to buying over the internet, especially if they feel it is in a language they are not fully proficient in. Offering them a language alternative allows the customers to feel secure in the fact they know what they are buying, how and who from.

7 Culturally Sensitive

A multilingual website, if designed properly, overcomes potential cultural barriers through allowing access in a native language. This automatically puts the user in a 'cultural comfort zone' due to their being able to navigate, understand and interact with the website.

8 Beat Competitors

To get the competitive advantage in today's environment you need to think outside the box. Many businesses try to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Look at your competitors – if they have multilingual websites then why don't you? If they don't, then why not lead the marketplace and establish your company or brand abroad before they do.

9 Shows International Nature

Image is everything. A multilingual website demonstrates you think, work and deal internationally.

10 Search Engines

Search engines lead people to your site. In countries such as China, Japan and France, Google, Yahoo and MSN are not the default search engines. Home grown search engines are emerging and they are proving successful because they work in native languages and are focused on the habits and needs of their users. Such search engines are a key to tapping those markets and unless they have access to a particular language through your multilingual website then you will not be found.

In addition, many of the key search engines, especially Google, are developing the capacity to run searches in foreign languages. Having pages of your site available in those languages ensures maximum potential for your site being picked up in searches.

Conclusion

Business continually sees shifts and changes. At present the multilingual website is still in its early stages, with mostly large multinational companies using them to secure an international foothold. However, the trickle-down effect will naturally occur and the multilingual website will become part and parcel of an internet presence. Whether people chose to invest now or later is the only choice they have.

Google Uses Alexa’s Information For Ranking and Indexing!

So you’re probably wondering why I have the Alexa Toolbar Installed on my browser and why I tell my fellow marketers, webmasters and SEO gurus to do the same.

It’s simple. The Alexa toolbar monitors all my surfing and collects information about what domains I visit. They don’t know that it’s “me” – they collect it as anonymous user data and use it to rank web sites. Not only does Alexa use this information for determining where people surf on the web but so does google. Let me repeat that fact so it sinks in:

Google Uses Alexa’s Information For Ranking and Indexing!

Installing the Alexa toolbar and surfing your own site will absolutely help you get your sites indexed by Google more quickly. I just started this blog today, and the googlebot has already come by without any inbound links!

Because the Alexa toolbar is such a pile, no one ever keeps it installed. So just by updating and surfing your own site daily, (assuming NO ONE else does), you can get your Alexa ranking from 5,500,000 or “no data” to around 300,000 in under a month and to 100,000 in 3 months.

Alexa Rankings and Google PR are two of the main factors uninformed people look at when considering link exchanges. (Page Rank is completely useless BTW we have a white hat PR 4 site that gets 20 visitors a day and unranked sites that get several thousand per day).

If you remember the Nielsen Company, famous for the Nielsen Ratings, you understand that what is put on television was once determined by what a minute fraction of TV viewers watched: The people with a Nielsen box on their TV Set – The Nielsen Families. Having the Alexa toolbar installed on your browser is like being a Nielsen Family for the web. Your surfing habits will determine what is most “popular” and what sites should be ranked higher in the SERPs.

That was reason enough for me to install the Alexa Tool Bar. Download it for yourself, and watch your Alexa Rankings Skyrocket over the next several weeks. We know Google looks at the Information, which means that Yahoo and MSN are probably looking at it too.

Alexa’s Toolbar is a Great POWERFUL SEO tool.

Just a reminder to make sure you have the Alexa tool bar plugin installed. It is an important tool among others. But I consider the Alexa tool the most important plug in for Internet Marketers.

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both
now and forever Amen (2 Peter 3:18).

As a child of God, you must relish the Word of
God; you must enjoy the Word. Your most
exciting times should be when you’re in fellowship
with the Word. God’s Word is everything; it’s what
you need to be all that God has destined you to be in
life. Having come to Christ, you must have a strong
desire to grow in your spirit.
Just like a new-born baby is fed with natural food
to enhance its growth and wellbeing, so also does
God expect the one who’s born again to feed, and
keep feeding, on the Word. We’re born of the Word:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23). And then 1 Peter 2:2
says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of
the word, that ye may grow thereby.” Nothing else
will make you grow spiritually, except the Word. God’s
Word will build you up to be spiritually, mentally, and
emotionally sound and balanced.
Your approach to the Word should be like the
Psalmist’s who said, “I rejoice at thy word, as one that
findeth great spoil” (Psalm 119:162). Cherish God’s
Word. Know the Word for yourself. You may stand
on someone else’s faith for a while; you may even
stand on your Pastor’s faith for a while, but it may not
continue after some time. It’s the reason some people
wonder why the prayers of others for them don’t seem
to work like it used to. It’s because God never intended
for your life to be sustained by the faith of another;
you’ve got to stand on the Word for yourself.
You have to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ—for yourself. Study and learn
more about Him, and watch your life become a full
expression of the Word. Meditate on the Scriptures
until you’re programmed to only think God’s thoughts,
and influenced only by His character, ideas, and
opinions.

Confession
Dear Lord, you’re my God! Early
will I seek you; my soul thirsts for
you; my spirit longs for your Word
as the deer pants for the water
brooks. I delight in your Word
and yield to it for exhortation,
doctrine, and counsel; in it I’ve
found life, peace, righteousness,
and everlasting joy. Blessed be
God
Pastor Chris

What Does The Future of the Ad-Supported
Revenue Model Mean to the Internet and Technology?

An advertising-supported revenue model is a business approach that emphasizes the sale of advertising as a major source of revenue. This structure is most prominent in traditional broadcast and print media, as well as online media. Media businesses generally earn revenue from advertising, customer subscriptions or a combination of the two.

Traditional Media

TV and radio shows, along with newspapers and magazines, generally serve to entertain or inform viewers or readers. TV and radio have traditionally been largely advertising-supported. While networks and TV stations do often earn revenue through subscriptions to satellite or cable television, much of their income is earned from advertisers trying to appeal to viewers. Similarly, magazines and newspapers charge subscription or purchase fees, but advertisers pay to place ads within these print media.

E-Commerce

The emergence of the Internet in the mid-1990s has affected the advertising-supported revenue model. Newspapers, for instance, have tried to adjust to increased demand for online content and limited growth in print publications. Thousands of media websites have been born online, which often offer free access to content for users. This attracts users and enables the publishes to sell banner ads and advertorial ad spaces. Traditional newspapers have offered free content as well, but many are trying to figure out how to combine ad revenue with subscription fees as of 2013.

Benefits

The benefit of an advertising-supported revenue model is that if you have an audience, you can almost always find companies that want to pay to reach it. This is especially true when you can provide specific details about the nature of your audience. When you operate with a 100 percent ad-supported model, you can more easily attract users with free content. Newspapers have long given away hundreds of copies to businesses and organizations in communities to drive up their circulation and readership, and subsequently, ad revenue potential.

Drawbacks

The major drawback of an entirely ad-supported revenue model is the inherent lack of diversification. Businesses generally prefer multiple revenue streams when possible. In a down economy, advertisers might back off their investments, which can more negatively affect a medium that has no subscription revenue. Plus, print publications, and even some websites, have high costs. Even a small subscription rate can help cover some of these costs. Local newspapers charging, say, 35 cents per issue can't use that to cover all production costs, but the fees do help offset costs and allow revenue to build.

Facebook Reports Soaring Revenue, Buoyed by Mobile Ads

On Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg’s social-networking company, Facebook, reported another quarter of soaring revenue. The company said sales in the fourth quarter rose 52 percent from a year ago, to $5.84 billion, while profit increased to $1.56 billion, more than doubling from $701 million a year ago. For the full year, the company reported $3.69 billion in profit on $17.93 billion in revenue, an increase of 44 percent from 2014.

The numbers far surpassed Wall Street’s fourth-quarter expectations of $1.2 billion in profit on $5.37 billion in revenue. Investors welcomed the performance by pushing up Facebook’s stock more than 12 percent in after-hours trading.

The results were largely a result of Facebook’s enormous success in selling advertising on mobile devices, a business that the company was not even in just a few years ago. Mobile ads made up 80 percent of the company’s total ad business in the fourth quarter, compared with 23 percent in the same quarter of 2012.

“We have a Super Bowl on mobile in the U.S. every single day,” Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, said in an interview.

The results offer a bright spot in a tumultuous climate for many American technology stocks. Shares of Twitter, Facebook’s most visible social networking competitor in the United States, have tumbled more than 55 percent during the last year. Yelp, the local-review service, is down about 60 percent. LinkedIn, the professional social networking service, is off more than 15 percent.

Facebook is a much larger company than many of its peers, yet it is able to keep its growth rate high. The company has notched double-digit jumps in ad revenue and in the expansion of its user base. Facebook now has 1.59 billion monthly visitors, up 14 percent from a year ago. About 1.44 billion of those people visit the site on a mobile device; 1.04 billion visit Facebook every day.

That growth engine has given Facebook lots of room to play in different areas — like virtual reality, messaging and even building drones capable of delivering Internet service to far-flung places around the world — that seem to have little to do with Facebook’s core business of advertising.

Facebook is spending billions of dollars developing those projects, and Mr. Zuckerberg has repeatedly said the company has no plans to make money on them in the near term. In an earnings call with investors, David Wehner, Facebook’s chief financial officer, said the company projected that expenses would increase roughly 30 to 40 percent over the course of 2016 compared with last year.

One example of the spending is on Oculus, Facebook’s $2 billion bet on bringing virtual reality to the mainstream. The unit will begin selling its first headsets to consumers in March. Facebook has said it plans to sell the hardware, called the Rift, at a loss to help the technology catch on with a large audience.

“These are long-term bets, but we don’t think they’re particularly large bets relative to the size of Facebook,” said Ben Schachter, an Internet analyst at Macquarie Securities. “They’ve gone out of their way to say they’re not Google and going after health care, for instance.”

Other analysts said they also saw potential for profit in the hundreds of millions of people who regularly use Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, a messaging service also owned by Facebook.

They are also bullish on the potential for Instagram, the photo-sharing service that has more than 400 million regular monthly users, to become a significant source of revenue in the future. The company does not disclose what portion of revenue Instagram accounts for in Facebook’s overall sales. Ms. Sandberg said 98 of the top 100 advertisers on Facebook also advertised on Instagram in the last quarter.

As for Mr. Zuckerberg, he spent a portion of the investor call on Wednesday talking about his new role as a father to his daughter, Max.

“With a new addition to my family, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the legacy we want to pass on to the next generation,” he said, adding that he wanted Facebook to “continue to focus on solving the fundamental challenges facing the world, and bringing the world closer together.”

I’ve always been a believer is scripted sales and prospecting. It just always seemed logical to me that the professional sales person, by virtue of repetition, should be better at selling than the average customer should be at resisting the sell.

This is an important topic in prospecting for recruits in the the MLM business because, as anybody will know who is trying to build an MLM organization, if there’s one thing most people resent more than being ‘sold to’… it’s being recruited into an activity that statistically the vast majority of people have a bad attitude about.

That being the case, it seems to me that the people ‘we’ (i.e. those of us trying to build an MLM organization) will encounter two kinds of people:

Those who have been in MLM but are currently not.

Those who have been and still are in MLM.

Those who don’t even know what MLM is.

Type 3’s are pretty rare nowadays.

Nowadays, I think we’re more likely to encounter Type 1’s simply because MLM has been around for over 50 years and has burned through a lot of people… and those people have spread ‘fear of MLM’ among most of their friends.

Those are the people for which the opener, “Hey Clyde…ever done any MLM? (WFA) So.. you’ve probably discovered that MLM sucks, right? (WFA).

At that point, the approach originated by Markethive CEO Tom Prendergast, i.e. the three magic questions, is appropriate.

(NB: WFA= wait for answer)

But how do you approach the Type 3’s, the people still laboring under the delusion that their MLM is somehow different or better even though their products barely retail (if at all) and the average person in their 'deal' seldom makes any money?

This is an important question because, as Ryan Gunnison, founder of MLMRecruitsOnDemand says, it just makes more sense to build an MLM business with people who know something about it than people who don’t.

And think there is a growing number of recruit candidates out there, Type 2’s, because (a) MLM’s have gotten better at marketing their ‘Busted Hopes and Broken Dreams’, and (b) more people are being forced to try MLM because there simply aren’t any better options (or at least it seems that way to them).

So, if it’s foolish to hit those people in the face with the statement, “Can we agree that MLM sucks”, because their defences are immediately going to go up, what can we say to get and keep their attention long enough to point out that if they are in just about any company except Valentus, they are (1) making a bad business decision and (2) not treating people like they themselves would like to be treated?

I think it’s something along the lines of:

You’re doing an MLM business now, right?

Are you still in that MLM company you were telling me about?

What’s that MLM company you were telling me about the other day?

Etc.

In other words… asking a seemingly innocent question. In most cases, if they still are in that particular MLM they’re going to be eager to have somebody ask about it rather than hold up a Cross.

And here’s where we get the real vaccine that we’re trying inject into their infected mind. I already mentioned it above but I’ll do so again, in slightly different terms, and then back it up.

MLM does suck. Tom is right.

Tom is right because MLM products rarely if ever compete ‘in the real market’. 99.5% of the time MLM products are something that nobody really needs, very few really want, very few can easily afford, and pretty much nobody wants to sell.

This type of consumer advantage very rarely, if ever, applies to MLM products. In almost every instance, people get into MLM companies and knowingly buy overpriced products which they often don’t even want or need on the carefully encouraged expectation that they’ll be able to get rich by recruiting an army of other similarly short-sighted consumers into doing the same thing.

The full FTC report on Herbalife noted that Herbalife had (and probably still has) a turnover rate of approximately 50%!! What’s doubly sad is that these statistics (for public companies) readily available in SEC-required financial reports. But..nobody knows it.

What moral, ethical person would knowingly do such a thing? And my point is, doesn’t the Golden Rule say, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”?

Sure it does. So…since when is it Kosher to screw our friends by getting them into something which directly harms them. The summary of the recent $200 Million settlement between the US Federal Trade Commission and once-mighty Herbalife pretty much said that hardly anybody made any money with Herbalife.

But Herbalife was just an obvious target for the FTC. The FTC could have grabbed a random name out of a hat of the top 20 MLM’s and probably prosecuted the same case successfully.

So we can rest assured that those Type 2’s we talk to are most likely not making any money. And even if they are, it’s very difficult. Our challenge is to trigger their pain-points and get them to think about it without taking it as a personal attack.

I think we can do by simply saying, “How’s that working out for you?”

If they spout any of the motivational, public relations B.S that they’ve been conditioned and/trained to say, we need to dig a little deeper. And I think one of the best ways to do that (especially for us in Markethive), is to ask:

“What’s your biggest problem in your business right now?”

That sounds pretty innocent, doesn’t it?

How could anybody object to that question?

It seems to me that almost any reasonable or hypothetical answer to that question can be turn to a discussion pointing to Markethive and/or Valentus.

Why?

First of all, those of us in Markethive know that even though our system is still being polished in a few areas, it still works pretty well and beats the hell out of any other online marketing tool that any MLM company has.

Secondly, we can prove that our weight loss coffee product meets any and every criteria for being a good business decision.

Let’s look at that issue a bit:

Valentus’s great tasting coffee, even for a consumer with no interest in the business side of Valentus and who only buys 3 boxes a month (not the lower cost per box Ruby pac of 16 boxes that ‘we’ talk about most of the time), is still less than the $2.70 per cup that this article last year in US News and World Report cited as the US average.

The numbers aren’t rocket-science. You buy eggs by the dozen, nails by the pound, milk and gas by the gallon, and coffee buy the cup. Even buying just the 3 box pac of Valentus coffee, the consumer pays approximately 20% less.

20% day in and day out, for something that many people consider a habit…it’s nothing to sneeze at. Can Herbalife or Amway or Shaklee or NuSkin or any of those other companies do that for their customers?

And that doesn’t even factor in the fact that Valentus coffee isn’t just coffee…it’s healthy coffee that is proven to help people lose weight and/or inches.

Plus, which opportunity is easier to ‘sell’.

Opportunity A — “Yes, it costs more and you don’t really need it but you’ll make your money back and even more… by romancing and hyping all your friends and joining ‘us’ in the NFL Club (No Friends Left) on our great trips where we celebrate our psuedo-success with all our other self-centered friends. Or….

Opportunity B — Take that money you spend now of regular coffee, drink ours (which is better, healthier, and cheaper), plus… get ‘in the business for a measly $20, pass out a few samples on a regular bases, and/or ask people, ‘Who do you know who likes great coffee and would like to lose a few pounds and/or inches?’

It’s not a hard conclusion to reach for the average mind. I’m thinking that many people, regardless of where they are with their present MLM company, will realize that they don’t have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) anywhere near that powerful.

I’m thinking that the average MLMer knows that their products are hard, if not impossible, to retail. But most of them are getting a lot of pressure from their upline and their company to retail more and it’s making them very uncomfortable because it’s simply not practical for 99.9% of the MLM companies in the industry.

In Summary:

We need to carefully consider our approach to people and nuance it to whether they are Type 1’s, 2’s, or 3’s.

We need to understand human nature and not antagonize or scare away our prospects with the ‘ice bucket challenge’ of assaulting the integrity of their present MLM company (if they have one).

We need to emphasize that Valentus coffee is priced right to dominate a huge market (i.e. single-serving retail coffee) and, because it sells on eBay, it's a Total No Risk proposition.

Getting involved with the business opportunity side of Valentus makes sense from a business and an ethical perspective.